Olegas Bluff Bushfire Downgraded to ‘Under Control’

Media release – Parks and Wildlife Service, 26 February 2022 

Olegas Bluff bushfire update

The Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) continues in its efforts to fight a bushfire burning within the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park and on Aboriginal Land Council Tasmania land.

As a result of concentrated ground works and co-ordinated water bombing, the incident status has been downgraded from Going to Under Control. With weather conditions forecast to continue to be dry and warm in the southwest, the suppression effort will be maintained with aerial firefighting resources and remote area fire crews continuing to work their way around the boundary edge identifying and extinguishing hotspots with continued aerial support.

In October 2020 the PWS conducted a fuel reduction burn just east of where this fire was first detected. The objectives of the controlled burn were to provide protection to sensitive natural and cultural values in the immediate and surrounding area and reduce the risk of large bushfires within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) through strategic reduction of high flammability fuels. The values this controlled burn was designed to protect included Aboriginal sites and highly sensitive natural assets.

Incident Controller Nic Deka said, “The fuel reduction burn in 2020 has been a key contributing factor in assisting firefighters to bring this incident under control, by reducing the high flammability fuels and slowing the spread of the fire to enable ground crews and aircraft to contain the fire well ahead of any damage to sensitive natural and cultural values”

As part of the TWWHA Fire Mitigation Program the Parks and Wildlife Service prioritises bushfire mitigation activities and fuel reduction burns in order to reduce the risk to visitors, communities, the outstanding universal values and critical infrastructure within and adjacent to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Areas of Tasmania.